Andrew Clennell: Major blue — Union Loy ploy turns nasty

WHATEVER happens, we know one thing — should Jeff Loy become police commissioner, it will give the police union its biggest wish, says Andrew Clennell.

• JEFF LOY: EVERY NSW CAR COULD HAVE A COP IN IT

THIS story begins with an innocent Friday afternoon drink. Around ­October I walked into an underground city bar to meet someone and saw to my surprise that drinking together were Police Association official Tony Bear, Police Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy and Rob Vellar, a former senior police officer and the chief of staff to the Energy Minister Anthony Roberts.

I thought this gathering was a little unusual — and stored in the back of my mind that it was clear Loy was close to the association.

Still, I put this little incident out of my mind — after all what was the point of writing it — until Bear decided to accost me at a Christmas party in mid-December.

Bear, the “relationships co-ordinator” at the association, started forcefully saying that I had cost Jeff Loy one of the deputy commissioner’s jobs.

I was pretty stunned and asked him what the hell he was talking about. He told me cabinet was about to approve Mick Fuller and Frank Mennilli as deputy commissioners of police whereas the only one the association felt it could trust was Jeff Loy.

He said Commissioner Andrew Scipione’s office had told him that I had told them Loy had been drinking with Bear and, as a result, Loy had been “put to the bottom of the list”. I said this was utter rubbish, I had not had any such conversation with the commissioner or his office, and as Bear continued to have a go at me, I told him where to go. The Commissioner’s office yesterday also denied any such comments were made to Bear.

Police Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

People coming up to journalists to carry on is part of the job, so I took all this in my stride. Until now.

What I have been told in recent weeks about what is going on with the appointment of senior police is nothing short of extraordinary.

I have been told the police union is effectively attempting to heavy the government into delaying the appointment of deputy commissioners until Scipione is replaced as they did not get what they wanted out of the recruitment process.

And it is also being suggested this might please Troy Grant, the Police Minister and former cop, ­because his friend Geoff McKechnie was not selected as a deputy (Grant has previously said to me he finds any mention of his relationship with McKechnie in this sort of context as being offensive).

And not only that but that union officials, particularly Bear, are telling senior police they have secured a delay in the appointment of deputy commissioners. What was the point of the process of ­selecting new deputies if the whole thing is now set to hit the fence?

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Grant has also been backed by the association to stay in the police minister’s job and perhaps this has influenced some of his thinking. Yesterday Grant was hedging his bets, telling me: “We haven’t made any decisions. No decision to do that (delay the process) or not to do that.”

I don’t know whether Jeff Loy is the best candidate to be a deputy or not. He may well be.

But Premier Mike Baird needs to show some strength on this issue.

He ought to adopt the recommendations of his expert panel and appoint the two deputies that were recommended. Otherwise, what was the point in having the process? Troy Grant set up this process and now the speculation is he may be abandoning it.

Whatever happens, we know one thing — should Jeff Loy become police commissioner this year, it will give the police union its biggest wish.

Not necessarily the rank-and-file police members, mind you — just the blokes who sit in the union offices and go to lunch.